28 February 2011

Royal Caribbean and their sister company Azamara Club Cruises changed their itineraries for the next four months to eliminate Egyptian ports. Princess Cruises and MSC Cruises will not visit Egypt until November. Costa Cruises is monitoring the situation and they will resume cruises to Egypt once they are sure the situation has stabilised.

Costa Cruises, Sea Dream Yacht Club and Disney Cruise Lines have also eliminated Tunisia from their cruise schedules for the time being.

The latest country where protests have erupted against the government is of course Libya. This is still a fairly unknown destination for cruise passengers. A few cruise lines planning cruises to Libya in the fall, including Crystal Cruises and Azamara, feel it’s too early to make any decision regarding these cruises.

Mike Driscoll, editor of the weekly trade publication Cruise Week, says that travel agents are deeply concerned that reservations might be affected during the upcoming summer season. Egypt is a favourite port of call for cruises to the Eastern Mediterranean.

“People aren’t canceling in droves,” he said. But agents have reported that “there aren’t a lot of new bookings coming.”

While a number of operators running river cruises on the Nile have indicated that they will not be offering any cruises until at least the end of March, at least one operator, Sonesta Nile Cruises, hopes to have all five their ships in operation again by the end of February.

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